A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

     A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith is the heart wrenching journey of one young girl and her immigrant family as they reach for the American dream.  Smith captures more than the poverty of Brooklyn during the first decades of the twentieth century; she captures the indignity that the poor face as they live at the mercy of those who own everything as they hang on to the edges of life with their dreams.  She captures the determined steel in the characters’ survival instincts as they refuse to be corroded by the toxic fumes of oppression; she  does this as they maintain family pride with love and humor.
     Smith makes the reader aware that in poor communities, intimate noises come across narrow spaces between crowded housing and linger on air waves; it is where little girls and little boys find their role models as they gaze into neighbors' lives; it is where hands reach out to catch those who stumble.  It is also where those hands find ways to push each other toward their dreams.  They leave connections humming.  Life is palpable!
     The reader chokes on swollen emotions but, before they overwhelm the heart and inner strength, love refuses to die.  Johnny, the father, is the gentle beauty that soothes Fancie; Neeley is the little brother that gives her life meaning; Katie,  her mother, is that flexible piece of steel that drives determination into them all.  And Sissy!  Sissy is that beautiful aunt that everyone loves; she is the aunt that allows some rules to break; she is youth and, no one can resist her temptation.
     Fancie's story, childhood to woman, holds the novel together.  Her tree is not only planted in the soil, but it is planted in your heart, and in her heart.  The tree refuses to die; it endures and endures and eventually it thrives.
     

An Invisible Thread by Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowki

          The Invisible Thread is a true story.  It reveals the profound change that the bond of friendship has on two individuals.
          It is New York; it is 1986.  Laura, a successful white young woman is a lonely individual.  One day she makes a decision that some of us toy with for a moment or two.  Maurice, a young African American boy without dreams, meets Laura one day on the corner of a busy New York street.  They both feel the risk, but follow their hearts and take a chance on spirit. 
          Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski weave language in its simplicity to reveal the most complex of human emotions.  As the reader follows the stories of Laura and Maurice, it becomes obvious that the outward material trappings of humans do not reveal what lies in the hearts.
          For Laura...  "All we knew was that once my father's rages had started, they could not be stopped.  Most nights we'd be in bed when he arrived at midnight or later.  We'd listen for the telltale sounds - the way he slammed the front door or the clinking of the ice in a glass in the kitchen..... Sometimes it would just start."
          For Maurice... "  As she injected, she'd say, "Oh, that's good," and her head would tilt back.  She would hum a tune and wave her hand through the air to the melody, and she would drift, drift, drift away until there was no pain at all.  For Maurice, these were the best moments - when his mother found her peace.  It was moments that came before it, when she was fidgety, angry, hopelessly restless, that upset Maurice ......"
         Laura lives on Broadway in a trendy studio; Maurice Lives two blocks away in a welfare hotel.  Their paths cross; their lives change as they recognize something similar in each other.  They form a relationship and the friendship helps them sort through their pain and, over time, they accompany each other on a path of hope, beauty, and family.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

       Metaphors ... personification...... figurative language, Markus Zusak makes art out of words and he uses his style to give a bittersweet and unusual twist to the telling of The Book Thief.
       The narrator's voice will surprise and intrigue; it will strike fear in the heart, but as the reader accepts the voice it will slowly seduce and intoxicate as it pours into the mind.
       Set in Germany in the midst of human betrayal, the most unusual friendships are born.  Bonds of love solidify relationships woven between the most unlikely of subjects.  And, friendship gives birth to hope; and hope gives birth to bravery; and bravery saves lives.
       Zusak pulls the reader into a puzzle made of pieces of rythmic poetry and colorful events.  He uses the most unlikely narrator to capture the reader's sense of mystery and horror.  Yet, when the horror dissipates the reader is clearly aware of the absolute logic in the argument at the end of this tale; the reader accepts the entire cycle of life and moves on.

Thank you to my English 103 student, Berkley, who suggested this book.

Don't Let Me Go by Catherine Ryan Hyde

     Don't Let Me Go tugs on the heart strings with wonder; it creates smile after unexpected smile.  Catherine Ryan Hyde brings the story of drug addiction and its impact on a girl child to our eyes in a warm pool of love, determination, trust, and commitment.
     The story takes place in a small insignificant apartment building lost in the invisibility of marginal poverty.  Hyde gives us the haunting yet exhilarating voice of a brave young girl and the voice of an insecure and once popular dancing stage performer who lost his nerve and freedom to wonder the world.
     The "normalizing" of abandonment and isolation of persons in poverty is turned on its face by Hyde.  She places the reader in the hallway of closed doors and bangs on them with vigor as she captures the mind of a young girl teetering between the lightheartedness of childhood and the maturity that buffers her as she faces harsh and possibly emotionally damaging circumstances.
    Hyde creatively pours words into the cold compartmentalized environment and leaves in their wake a pulsing warmth that stays with the reader for the entire story. 
    The cast of characters in the apartment complex rise above and beyond expectations as they confront their own demons in order to save a young woman from what could be a dangerous future.  They build trust, friendship, and love as they make commitments and bond over a promise to keep her "safe."

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

     The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, is a book of a young boy's sudden plunge into reality.  He is challenged by emotional trauma and the reader is confronted by a child's innocent depression and result of post traumatic stress.
     The love of his life; the woman who gave him meaning dies a tragic death.  And, the trauma has a ripple effect throughout Theo's life.  In his opinion, he has no father, and he is all alone in the world.  On the way to foster care, Theo is "saved" by a wealthy family and he makes relationships that, in some respects, soothe his wounds, but also they create longings that are not necessarily achievable.
     As Theo story continues, the sadness in his soul reflects in a controlled desperation that drives his human connections.  He is "adopted" by a someone eccentric antique furniture artist.  He gives his heart in secret to a young woman who has ideas of her own.  Over time, he encounters his father and makes attempts at a new family.
     Crime and drugs enter his story as he struggles to stay safe; his honesty is challenged.  Along the way he plays with the idea of marriage.  He wants to create family.  As his story culminates, Theo experiences many human challenges; he experiences highs and lows; and he reaches out for understanding.

The Kitchen House: A Novel by Kathleen Grissom

     The Kitchen House: A Novel by Kathleen Grissom is a story of American history.  Grissom takes the reader on a journey that is filled with the bones of innocent Americans.  She reveals layers of oppression that continues to tear holes in the fabric of American culture.  Her novel is filled with characters' tales that run thick with the blood of humans.

     The story starts in 1791, a child is on a boat full of desperate immigrants in debt to an American merchants and plantation owners.  These indentured laborers are Irish.  There is sickness and her parents die; her brother is sold; she survives.  Grissom's words draws tears as the child sees others love and she longs for someone to stroke her hair and touch her cheeks.  She hurts !  In a fog of confusion, the white child finds herself in the kitchen of a plantation where she is given as an "adopted" child to the black slave family.

     The story shocks as it should.  It reveals the horror of human sadism.

     Abinia grows up in the midst of strong and fierce love.  As a child she bonds with her new family.  She depends on them for sanity.  As a white child she learns the multiple meanings of freedom and trust.  She learns that nothing is what it seems.  Relationships cross boundaries and secrets are buried deep in souls.  Death is a daily experience and she sees that the slaves have no reason to trust.  As time goes on Abinia is faced with decisions that she experiences as if skewered by hot steel.
     Abinia can never get accustomed to the structure of slave culture.  Therefore, mistakes are made and lives are put at risk.  Her love of family is reciprocated by those who will give their lives for each other and for freedom.

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

     Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline opens one of the many doors to the world of the orphan in America.  In this case, the voice is that of a young girl whose world is turned inside out by the deaths of her family members.
     The story touches the heart as the reader witnesses the bare bones of emotional abandonment and confusion.  The young narrator's struggle to make sense of a lost life and, at the same time her strive for a measure of control in the new world of foster families, grips the reader with a pain that is deep and profound.  The story, along with the sudden and unfathomable loneliness of death and abandonment, gives the reader access to a world beyond the front door of foster care.  The lesson that seeps into the heart is that there are precarious places for a child and that the safety of children cannot be taken for granted.
     On the other hand, Kline uses the word to place a hand on the wound as she weaves the most unexpected friendship between a child on the verge of being jaded by unfortunate circumstances with her elderly friend and "savior."  Actually, the two women form a bond that allows them to heal old wounds.
    As the friendship progresses, Kline, along with the reader, weaves layer after layer of emotional warmth and at the end of this beautiful story, the bare bones emotional skeleton has grown layers of rich flesh infused with the forces of love, friendship, and acceptance.

The Story Teller by Jodi Picoult

The Story Teller takes place around the baking of fine, hotly buttered, mouth watering, scrumptious, multi-flavored, recognizable bread!  Brioche, challah, "babka, poppy seed cake and mazurek."

Jodi Picoult pulls the reader into a struggle with life and death, and with the human effort to understand how we end.  She takes this human and personal path to lead us into the painful puzzle of good and evil, of man and woman's inhumanity to others.  And, yet in the midst of the readers own horror at our inhumane possibilities one finds oneself one of those "humans" as the senses react - as the reader's visual memories are activated and the smell of good hot bread ignites that hunger in the midst of the same memory that smells of spilt human blood.

The reader is jarred into seeing his or her own possibilities.  The reader is made to contemplate the temptation to feel superior, the temptation to belong, and the temptation to use pain to inflict pain.  Juxtaposed against these human conditions one sees, feels, and smells the horrific consequences of following the status quo, and the animal that emerges when one falls into that trap.

Picoult uses the main character to take the reader on an emotional human ride.  It is a ride full of pain, friendship, and understanding.  Just as the reader comes to believe that Sage, the main character, will always feel the pain of her scars, she finds love.

The Story Teller is about crime and punishment; it is about soul searching; it asks ancient, present, and future questions.  It asks us to ask ourselves what lies ahead!

It is about the Holocaust.

Picoult is a sensitive and artful writer.  She uses metaphors and similes to help the reader digest horror.  As you read, you understand, that the bread metaphor works like a mother's hot soup on a day heavy with storms.

BUCK by Asanti

The hot beat of rap poetry stills the reader.  It weaves its way through your senses as the beat is caught in the fleshy sadness of a perpetual family and social story that should not be.

It simply should not be a story in the midst of a "progressive" and "civilized" society.

Ashante brings the voice of the urban black youth to the forefront.  His lyrics curl themselves around your heart and squeeze.  He is asking the reader, how could you not care!  He is demanding the reader to look and look again, recognize [my] humanity; take note of [my] anger.  Respect [my] possibilities.

BUCK is defiant; it is unapologetic.

BUCK is a son's love for his mother.

BUCK is a testimony for his brother.

BUCK is a demand for respect.

BUCK is a time to pause, to stop, to reflect.

BUCK is a time for change.

Ashante is a young man who takes us on an important journey into American life in what is called the "ghetto."  He calls attention to every mother's dream and every mother's sorrow.  He makes us bleed for lost fath.er's and fatherhood.

The music in his poetry keeps the reader high enough to withstand the pain that he exposes.
 
"Later on, at dinner, Uncle Howard tells me about the war inside.  "There's a war between two wolves inside everybody.  One is anger, jealousy, greed, resentment, inferiority, lies, and ego.  The other's good.  It's love, peace, beauty, happiness, truth, hope, joy, humility, kindness, and empathy."....... I give long, deep hugs to Uncle Howard and Aunt Georgia, then hop in the car with Ryan.  I start the engine, then jump out, forgetting something.  I walk up to my uncle.  "In the story," I ask, "who wins.... between the wolves?  The one you feed." (pg 187-8)

No Matter ... Bill Bailey Ain't Never.... by Edgardo Vega Yunque

I read!  638 pages!  And I read it twice.

Yungue's genius writing style took me on a journey of twists and turns that always came together at the right moments and, those connections served to propel me into extended sections of his novel.

The size of the book is daunting but, immediately, upon entrance, it grabs you.   At first, the long explanations and tangents into other minds and histories scare the reader with the fear of boredom to come.  Yet, that doesn't happen.  After a while the words open you up and release a sort of patience.  You are reassured that the writer expects that you will return, to reread, to think, to cross bridges, and to form opinions.  There is promise in his style; there is confidence in his style; he expects you to revisit.  And, you do.

The foundation he builds on is his love of music - of jazz music.  And, what is jazz?  Jazz, an orchestrated symphony of instruments talking of love, of pain, of life, of love.  He takes the opportunity to share the emotional calms and upheavals that come with this creativity and, in doing so, he understand that his writing had to call to life this symphony of stories.

more to come.......

Kindred by Octavia Butler

Kindred!  A word that dips in and stirs expectations.  It stirs the blood.

Butler takes the reader on a harrowing emotional ride through American's history of African-American experiences.  The reader takes this ride in the shoes of a young black female identity and, to some extent, the identity of a young white male.

Octavia Butler, in her written art piece, Kindred, does what she does with such unequivocal brilliance, she transform you the reader into the character.  You are no longer in control of who you think you are when you encounter Butler's words.  Her genius is the ability to take you there; her genius is in her power to make you a part of the other psyche.

What stands out in Kindred is the lack of logic harnessed in the willingness of humans to cave into sadism while expecting love and loyalty from their victims.  She highlights the inhumanity seemingly existing right under the surface of the human.

Butler takes you inside of yourself to quiver with your own insecurity, your own knowledge of that self reflected in all of her characters.  Her approach in this novel unsettles the reader.  The main character, Dana, is dragged into her past to save a member of her family. Positioned as this savior, Dana has to learn to love and forgive in the midst of

more to come.....

I,Tituba, the black witch of Salem by Maryse Conde

Respect! absolute honor and recognition is reflected in Maryse Conde's novel - I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem.

more to come.....

The Polished Hoe by Austin Clarke

Stunning! This is the word that comes to mind whenever I think of this novel, The Polished Hoe. Even more pleasing was the laugh that came to me at the end when my understanding of the title blossomed.

I am not sure I've ever read a book written by a man who managed so well to capture the grit of a woman as she repelled the degradation of racism. What astonished me was that he did not follow the taken for granted path that this disease normally takes in novels. Instead, he revealed the diseased minds and actions of those who practiced racism and benefited from it. Unapologetically, he exposed the mental illness routed in perpetrators of the disease.

I found myself applauding. And, this time, I applauded without the guilt that comes with a taste for blood.

Using the voice of this remarkable character, Mary-Mathilda, Austin Clarke takes his words and slashes at any semblance of a benevolent racism. At the same time, he highlights the strength of women that is often ignored.

Immediately, as you enter the novel you are made aware that something unexpected and welcomed has happened and that the something that is hinted at is a natural response to the circumstances. Any other response would have meant psychological death.

If I could, I would make this book required reading for all. Austin Clarke's work is genius. The Polished Hoe is a keeper and it is a novel that I will read again and again.

by Bacchus

Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee

I picked up this novel at Borders. It was on the sale shelf; I usually browse sale shelves looking for books written by women. I am especially happy when I find books written by women of different countries and cultures.

Min Jin Lee's book Free Food for Millionaires captured my attention because I realized, as I read the back cover, that I had not read any book by someone Korean. Immediately my curiosity was peeked; I wanted to take the trip with Min Jin and the cover of her book promised me a story about women. I wanted to see where our borders crossed. How did our womanhood(s) connect?

I was pleasantly surprised by Min Jin's ability to capture a broad spectrum of personalities in her novel. Lee's writing grabbed me and pulled me in. She created atmospheres with her words; she carved dialogue into me that made the conversations between characters feel as if they were happening in my head; they echoed of prior experiences. Her ability to make multiple characters come alive gave me access to the stories buried in her novel. Into one head I went to find myself and through those eyes the other characters came alive.

In her novel, Free Food for Millionaires, Lee confronts what seems to be a universal barrier for women and that is the perpetual feeling of guilt. The characters in her novel show resilience as they struggle with family expectations, professional dreams, and risks as they confront tradition, break boundaries and create new paths.

Free Food for Millionaires will comfort women and it will give them the strength to make change and design their own individualities.

The only question I had of this author was something that struck me as odd. How does one create a fictional story in Manhattan and other diverse areas of New York and still manage to make various groups of people invisible?

by Bacchus

Child of the Dark by Carolina Maria de Jesus

Unbelievable! Child of the Dark is remarkable and genius because of the writer’s determination, the circumstance of her life and the originality of the novel. Carolina Maria de Jesus' story is at once unique and at the same time timeless. She takes us into the lives of those who live on the margins and who are made invisible by society’s attitudes in relation to class and race.

In the midst of the struggle and the scramble for the necessities of life and as she struggles to provide the bare minimum for herself and children, Carolina refuses to let go of her dignity. She challenges the dehumanizing process of homelessness and poverty in Brazil. She demands to be seen and heard.

As the reader takes the journey with Carolina, her honesty is startling and stark. The reader must admire Carolina’s love of the written word as she uses a third grade education to craft a report of the circumstances in which millions of people across borders are imprisoned.

by Bacchus

In The Castle of My Skin by George Lamming

The novel, In the Castle of my Skin, by Bajan writer, George Lamming, is filled with many sections of long minute details. The reader might feel a gnawing irritation at the attention he gives to what seems to be unnecessary information. The reader’s patience will be challenged by the sometimes long and drawn out descriptions of conversations and daily activity. After critical confrontation with his or her inner self, the reader will realize that Lamming is honoring the complexity of his Caribbean heritage as he works the double entendre and criticism embedded in the calypso style into the Europeanized version of the novel we, the colonized, take for granted.

The genius of Lamming’s novel seeps into the mind. This genius is his ability to take you into the world of those often ignored and use their positions to highlight the social and political consequences of domination; in order to do this Lamming slows us down and demands that we look and listen –look and listen to these voices as they confront the hypocracy of the two worlds they are required to live in, untangle and change.

The reader is confronted by the reality of what is taken for “ordinary,” or better yet, in brutal honesty, the reader, often expected to be the educated middle class, the Fanonesque reader, is confronted by the daily life situations of the people considered to be the working lower class, the poor, and therefore, inconsequential. These are the voices that are often believed to be so simple that others speak for them and declare their reality.

Lamming’s breaks the paradigm that knowledge of the world can only be examined by the educated.

by Bacchus

Color Me Butterfly by L.Y. Marlow

Marlow writes a poignant story of family commitment, strength, and love. The journey is shared over five generations of women’s stories as they overcome tragedy and make change.

In this novel, Marlow brings to the reader the highs of young love, innocence and hope; and then she uncovers how what seems sure and predictable can crumble in the face of economic stress and the institution of marriage. She does not hesitate in her condemnation of patriarchy, sexism and the connections to anger and domestic violence.

The women of the novel refuse to be annihilated. They proceed on their journeys of survival and personal achievements. Marlow’s words call for you to venture into the depths of women’s unique challenges; she asks you to navigate the pain and the pressure of life while being uplifted by the resilience and stamina of generations of women.

Happy unions, celebration of birth, dreams and hope all flow through the novel as well as physical abuse, pregnancies, and mental illness; these are all a part of the family. These tragedies fracture and attempt to dismantle the basic frabric of family loyalty and the many female characters of the novel, but the women persevere, family links stretch, but do not break.

by Bacchus

The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill

The novel, The Book of Negroes, by Lawrence Hill is a sad rendition of the abomination of slavery. It starts in Africa recalling the story of families shattered and brutally murdered; it is a history of a stolen people. Love, bravery, strength, hope, and optimism run throughout the stories of ancestors and decendants allowing the reader to relive experiences, reconfirm human rights activism, and gain strength for the future.

The novel chronicles the actions of those humans who capture slaves and use them to create a world of material wealth. The stories of rape strip away any desire to see imperalist actions as human; it exposes man's inhumanity to man and woman.

Aminata’s life is continuously challenged as children are sold away permanently; husbands and wifes are permanently separated and women are impregnated by the unwanted seeds of white men.

Yet, woven into Aminata’s story are the many ways that humans find to share love and create futures; woven into the story is kinship and healing built on the very culture from which Africans were so roughly torn. As we run the gamutt with Aminata, we experience the length of a life that was born in freedom and eventually ended in freedom. Along the way Hill shows us the meaning of determination and survival.

Lawrence Hill tells a woman’s story. It is a story of resistance.

by Bacchus

The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper

Africa, Liberia, home to ex-slaves, possible paradise so long ago; it was an unbelievable opportunity to return home, the land of ancestors, and build a life without chains. This story appeals to the dreams of many. It is about family and it is about survival.

In Helene Cooper’s novel, The House at Sugar Beach, this is the life we explore. What a great opportunity! To have returned to Africa all those years ago, to really be able to say, “I am African,” and to rise above the psychological trauma of slavery, was a part of the utopia. Unfortunately, Cooper is able to give the reader a taste of reality. If only it had come true in all ways, a return to culture and the language. We learn the good and the bad. The ex-slaves returned to Africa and took with them what they had learned about class and the accumulation of material wealth.

The House of Sugar Beach is far from sweet. Yet, Cooper grabs and holds your attention as the youthful characters expose the tender playfulness of children as they build friendships across the jagged edges of class differences. At the same time, she exposes the extravagance of wealth and the tragic consequences of superior attitudes and unfair social practices.

Political unrest is violent and destructive, bloody and cruel; women are extremely vulnerable and must defend themselves and their children. The story shows us various family structures and struggles; it shows confrontations and damage when citizens and state officials clash; and it becomes a story of immigrants.

by Bacchus

Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende

Island Beneath the Sea is a fictional journey of historical magnitude. Allende’s talent is to be admired. Her words put the reader into the hearts and souls of the characters of African descent, the Haitians. She shreds any misunderstandings or misconceptions of the institution of slavery; she confronts any denial of the cruel sexual manipulation of black women; Allende names the criminal activity of the slave trade and the slave owners. The rape, the pedophilia, and the multiple attempts to dismember body, soul and mind cannot be ignored or forgotten.

But, do not be fooled. This is not a story of victims. As the reader interprets the story, it is immediately apparent that the women of the story are remarkably strong. They resist; they move heaven and earth to protect their kin. The love of family and culture is seen in the various relationships nutured and the many risks taken to preserve them.

Allende’s story builds from the intertwined personal stories that stand up to the brutality of colonization and culminates in the inevitable result of rebellion. The Haitians take control of their destiny. Alongside the stories of resistance, the story reflects the results of rebellion, the scattering of people, the eventual migration that accompanies the turmoil, fear, and poverty that is often the results of the transition from captivity to freedom.